2023 will be remembered for the unparalleled success at senior level but also a year when more events, particularly Junior, were held across our region that in any one single year facilitated through the funding provided by both the GSPDP grants but also the substantive ITF Pacific Oceania Assistance funding. It will also be remembered as a year when, in the last week of July, for the first time in Pacific Oceania history both the Men’s Davis Cup and Women’s Billie Jean King Cup Team were promoted in the same week.
But our region continues to innovate and none more so that when prior to the NZ Nationals in December, Pacific Oceania players trained at the Lavie Academy in Auckland, assisted by coaches Sebastian Lavie and Gilles de Gouy, as they prepared for the following week to play in the New Zealand Nationals. Similarly Tennis Coaching experts from Pacific Oceania and Asia travelled and conducted training programmes in Guam, NMI, Tahiti, Samoa and American Samoa.
But 2023 was also about opportunities where with the assistance of funding through the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), substantive coaching and other programmes, detailed throughout this report, were rolled out in a manner never-before-seen in our region.
But we still have a lot of work to do as we all work hard to change the lives of so many players, officials, administrators and coaches across our Region. This 2023 Annual Report which focusses on the activities of Pacific Oceania, is both an opportunity to celebrate the successes but also reflect on the journey that we have all been collectively experiencing as we have continued to embrace the ITF 2024 Strategy and 8 strategic priorities.